Publication information |
Source: Buffalo Courier Source type: newspaper Document type: article Document title: “Goldman Woman’s Cleveland Speech Sufficient to Place Her Within Meaning of Conspiracy Statute” Author(s): anonymous City of publication: Buffalo, New York Date of publication: 13 September 1901 Volume number: 66 Issue number: 256 Pagination: 3 |
Citation |
“Goldman Woman’s Cleveland Speech Sufficient to Place Her Within Meaning of Conspiracy Statute.” Buffalo Courier 13 Sept. 1901 v66n256: p. 3. |
Transcription |
full text |
Keywords |
McKinley assassination (investigation of conspiracy: Cleveland, OH); Emma Goldman (public addresses). |
Named persons |
William S. Bull; Luke Colleran; Leon Czolgosz; Emma Goldman; Matthew J. O’Loughlin [misspelled below]; Remus; Romulus. |
Document |
Goldman Woman’s Cleveland Speech Sufficient to Place Her
Within Meaning of Conspiracy Statute
EMMA GOLDMAN IS BY NO MEANS FREE FROM COMPLICITY
Her Incendiary Speech Delivered in Cleveland and Eagerly Drunk In by Czolgosz
Places Her Within Scope of Federal Law Covering Conspiracy.
IN PLAINEST WORDS IT CRIED FOR MURDER
Though a technical kink in the law prevents the
extradition of Emma Goldman for a time, even to the possible extent of placing
the venue of the conspiracy trial in the State of Illinois or the State of Ohio,
the Secret Service officers continue their task of turning up evidence of complicity
on the part of the Free Society in inciting Leon F. Czolgosz to commit his cowardly
attempt at assassination.
The officers believe they have now discovered
the text of the speech which is said to have fired the heart of the young Cleveland
Anarchist and inspired his impulse to kill the President. The address was delivered
in Cleveland before the International Arbeiter Zeitung Association group, located
in the Forest City.
HER SPEECH ADVOCATED VIOLENCE.
The speech in itself, as probably verified by affidavit yesterday by Detective Sergeant O’Laughlin, who was sent to Cleveland for that purpose by Supt. Bull, warrants the charge that Emma Goldman advocated the overthrow of social order by violent methods and convened a meeting in a populous city, to-wit, Cleveland, professedly to discuss economic questions, but really to propagate anarchial doctrines and to incite her hearers to assassinate persons intrusted with the maintenance and administration of law.
COMES WITHIN RULES OF EVIDENCE.
It appears that this incendiary harangue comes quite within the rules of evidence as being admissible against Emma Goldman, for the law is plain that where a person incites another to commit crime the adviser is equally guilty whether the adviser did, or ought to have, anticipated the result, although the means were not contemplated. The speech of Emma Goldman was a direct instigation to murder, and renders her liable as a principal, as soon as the questions of jurisdiction and venue are settled by the lawyers supervising the prosecution.
ANARCHIAL PAPERS PRINT TONED-DOWN SPEECHES.
Emma Goldman’s speeches are printed in the three
anarchial papers published by the Free Society in Carroll Street, Chicago, the
Free Society, Discontent and the Firebrand. Extracts from her addresses are
also collected and printed in book form for general circulation with the most
strenuous, inciting language eliminated. Supt. Bull telegraphed Supt. Colleran
to raid the office of the Free Society and seize the files of the paper and
all other documents of an incendiary character. It is supposed that such seizures
have been made, and if so it is likely that much of Emma Goldman’s manuscript
has fallen into the hands of the Chicago police.
It is not hard to picture Czolgosz under the spell
of Emma Goldman’s eloquence. She is an impassioned orator. Her addresses are
usually brief and she generally repeats them in German, English, Polish, Russian,
Italian and, if necessary, French. Her linguistic capabilities are extraordinary.
TEXT OF PLEA WHICH CRAZED CZOLGOSZ.
Her plea which turned Czolgosz into an assassin
ran as follows:
“The Free Society will soon have to decide whether
it is to be or not to be, either our outrageous present institutions must be
and then the Free Society cannot be, or the Free Society must be and then the
institutions cannot be. Only one of the two is possible. Who shall decide? Not
the dirty souls who carry on the business of quieting the working classes with
idle promises of reform in the near future. The great contest is at hand and
you men must meet it yourselves. DON’T ENTER UPON THE CONFLICT WITH EMPTY HANDS.
SUPPLY YOURSELVES WITH WEAPONS; EACH WORKMAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN ARMED LONG AGO.
One should never tire giving impulse in this direction for the great social
revolution is approaching with giant strides and commands us to prepare for
it. Let us have a care for the present that we will not be surprised by the
future unprepared. ARM YOURSELVES AND FIRE UPON THE BOSSES, NOT UPON THE POOR
SCABS.
“The whole power of capital, the entire government,
is ever ready to suppress the petty domination of workmen by force of arms,
one after another, now here, now there. This would be quite different if the
workmen of the entire country could see that their cause is in this manner being
stamped out without condition. Let the past butcheries of your brothers be a
lesson to you. ARM YOURSELVES AND STRIKE IN THE CAUSE OF YOUR HOMES AND YOUR
FAMILIES.
“From fable we learn that the founders of great
and difficult works have been nursed by wild beasts, among others, Romulus and
Remus were nursed by a she-wolf. From this we deduce that the founders of our
great common design must have, of necessity, something wolfish in their individuality.
The odds against which we strive demand that the men upon the firing line must
possess the qualities of wild animals.
“Workmen, fellows in misery, men of action, a
creation greater, higher, more exalted, nobler, is for us to establish. But
to this end you must be wolves, and as such you need sharp teeth. Already immense
masses of you are without means of subsistence. You grow thinner and thinner
while the capitalist grows fatter and fatter. Capital sucks the marrow out of
the bones of the workmen. Why do we complain? Why do we murmur?
LAYS ALL MISERY TO SOCIETY.
“We have no right to. Do we know all the misery,
all the want, all the humiliation of our present condition are the necessary
consequences of the present state of society. As long as we admit that we are
pariahs, as long as we submit our necks as slaves, we have no right to complain,
and hunger is our portion. We give our sons for slaughter and our daughters
for dishonor. Meekly we tender our members to the manacles of the oppressors.
In the name of justice how long must this last? Awake! The great are only great
because we are on our knees. Let us rise. Let us rise and meet our oppressors
with their own weapons.
“Shall we from the sheer love of harmony allow
our skulls to be crushed by murderous hirelings.
“No, let despair make the victims the victors.
We have the power, let us use it, there is no fear. The police power? Bah. You
know for what purpose the police exist—to protect workmen if he works for starvation
wages and is an obedient serf; to club him down if he rebels against a horde
of capitalistic robbers. Who wants to touch capital must over throw his bodyguards
and kill them. Kill them, I say, unless he wants to be murdered himself. Justice
or annihilation, that is our platform.
ADVOCACY OF PERSISTENT ASSASSINATION.
“The moment the abolition of government is suggested
the mind pictures the uprising of a hundred little despotic governments on every
hand, quarreling among themselves and domineering over the unorganized people.
This fact suggests the idea that the present government must be destroyed only
in a manner that will prevent the organization or rise of any and all other
governments.
“NO GOVERNMENT CAN EXIST WITHOUT A HEAD AND BY
ASSASSINATING THE HEAD JUST AS FAST AS THE GOVERNMENT HEAD APPEARS THE GOVERNMENT
CAN BE DESTROYED. AND BY THIS SAME PROCESS ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTS CAN BE KEPT
OUT OF EXISTENCE.
“All the governments exist by the abridgment of
human liberty—the more government the less liberty. He alone is free who submits
to no government. All governments are domineering powers and any domineering
power is the natural enemy of all mankind and ought to be treated as such. Assassination
will remove the evil from the earth. A man’s leader is his friend—his driver
is his enemy. This distinction should be understood, and parties should be dealt
with accordingly.
“Assassination properly applied is wise, just,
humane and brave. For freedom all things are just.”
VICIOUS ATTACK ON LABOR LEADERS.
Miss Goldman in this manner referred to walking
delegates and representatives of labor unions:
“The pretended leaders and official mouthpieces
of the trades [sic] unions are attempting to prevent the toiling masses
from using the best, most effective and only successful means against the predatory
beasts who must be exterminated as public enemies. These flunkies and lickspittles
speculate upon their chances of securing places at the public crib or some other
sinecure as influential agitators who must be taken care of for political reasons.
These enemies of labor manage somehow or other to get themselves elected to
trade assemblies and other representative bodies of organized labor where they
play the role of harmonizer and peacemaker between the despoiled wage slave
and their despoilers.”
The speech concluded with a bitter attack upon
the schools and churches.